Build Me Up! 1
If you’ve worked hard creating a plan or you have received our web plan and quote, before moving further we should again make sure we are clear on and can achieve your online business goals.
As we mention in Step One, a disadvantage of relying on someone to create your website for free, or doing it yourself when you are also running a business, is that the launch can be delayed or worse, a half-finished site is launched when everything has not yet been properly put in place. (We’ve been guilty of this in the past too.)
You can be assured that once you accept the web plan and quote we initially provide for you created to your specifications, your site will be designed and uploaded promptly. Generally you should allow up to four days per page for the design-to-upload process if your site is a CMS (Content Management System, such as WordPress). If you have an online shop, such as one at Shopify, this process depends on a number of factors and expected delivery time will be predicted accordingly.
Some tips for the building process
If you are building your CMS website yourself, make sure you frequently refer to your wireframes (if you have them) and web plans to make sure that you are getting everything done in the best order.
There are still a few things to do before beginning your site. For example, keyword research is important before writing the copy for your pages, if this has not been contracted out to an SEO specialist. (Or you may have completed this research in the planning stages.) This step alone is a good reason to pay a web designer to create your site as it may result in your site being found and read, rather than being like a billboard in a forest.
We like to make sure we have all the images and copy together as digital files, ie .jpg or .png files for the graphics and the copy we prefer in a text document before we even start so that we can copy and paste it without the formatting. In fact, before we begin a site for a client, all of this must be delivered to us by email or preferably on a zip drive. Only then can we guarantee that each page will be delivered in the timeframe that we promise.
We recommend starting with a placeholder page with no links on it in the front of the site with a basic message, kind of a Coming Soon, our new site! In the meantime, you can sign up to our email list (if you have one) or contact us here! (Add contact details.)
A suggested order
Once you have a placeholder page up, you can build the rest of the site (if you are not using a sandbox system) behind the scenes. We all have different processes but here is an order that you might find logical.
Create all the pages, and set them up as blank pages first with titles and even a brief description of what the page will contain. Do this according to your web plan. If you are having a blog, create the blog page and in the settings, make sure this page is specified as your blog. The blog posts are posts which will be listed on your blog page.
Once you have pages, you will then be able to set up the menus as each page, once created, will now have a link. You can have several menus, for example on this site, the three links at the top (as I write they are labelled subscribe, tuition and call me) are part of a different menu than the main menu with all the top pages on it. Make sure all the pages on you menus match your plan.
Make sure all the pages have good content. If you have done keyword research with the aim of optimising your search engine ranking, you will have carefully named the pages and accordingly, the keywords can be used liberally throughout the copy on each page. When we copy and paste the text from a word document and insert the media, we add the links and then proofread diligently. Finally we format into paragraphs, headings etc.
If you have not tested all the links in your proofreading process, do a quick check to make sure they work. You can use site link-checking programmes online or plugines. Do a search to find the right one for you.
Finally when your site is ready to go live, build the front page, as an enticing gateway to everything else.
Now you are ready to share your site and connect with the people who will be using it. Time to move on to Step Three.
- Build Me Up from The Reverend Al Green’s 2005 album Everything’s OK was a song that a Rolling Stone reviewer considered a standout. The Times reviewer wrote “On Build Me Up, the reverend doesn’t huff, puff and blow his way into the opening line; rather, he sidles up to it, low in the mix, and insinuates himself into the song. ” If you’re interested, watch the video.